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2022 Allen County Athletic Conference Thread (ACAC)


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Allen County Conference   Overall   Class
W-L Pct.   W-L Pct.   Sectional
Adams Central 6-0 1.000   13-2 0.867   1A 44
South Adams 5-1 0.833   10-3 0.769   1A 43
Heritage 3-3 0.500   4-6 0.400   3A 27
Woodlan 3-3 0.500   3-7 0.300   2A 35
Bluffton 2-4 0.333   4-6 0.400   2A 35
Jay County 2-4 0.333   3-7 0.300   4A 20
Southern Wells 0-6 0.000   0-10 0.000   1A 43

 

Central and South are the Big Dogs and all others are giving chase.  Is 4A Jay County ready to make a move?  Are Woodland and Heritage ready to contend?

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AC is definitely the favorites coming into the season. They return a large nucleus of the state runner up team from 2021. A lot of people will see that Heyerly, Currie and Newy are gone (90% or so of their offensive production) and assume they’ll take a huge step back. The fact is that AC had a 2nd string backfield last year that was the next best backfield in the ACAC after their own 1’s. Those guys are back and Black took a huge step forward as a leader and runner as QB last year. He’ll need to take further strides this year if they want to repeat last year’s success. AC’s front 7 will be about as solid as it gets in 1A with returning LBs Keegan Bluhm (over 200 tackles as he enters his junior season) and Ryan Tester. Zac Wurm (6’4” 280lb) returns up front along with some other solid players. The secondary will be the biggest question mark, but the pressure from the front 7 will help alleviate pressure on the DBs. 
 

SA is the front runner for 2nd place and I’m sure some from Berne will argue they’ll contend for the top spot, but I don’t see it. Owen Wanner will be the best passing QB in the conference for the next 2 years, but will he have time to throw against quality opponents? 
 

I think Heritage will be the next best team based on their numbers from last year and it seemed like their kids were buying into Coach Kolkmann’s program. 
 

The rest is a bit of a crapshoot. Southern Wells will struggle to score against any varsity defense. I’d say the rest of the standings will be Jay County, Woodlan, Bluffton and then Southern Wells.   
 

 

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3 minutes ago, FlyingHigh said:

AC is definitely the favorites coming into the season. They return a large nucleus of the state runner up team from 2021. A lot of people will see that Heyerly, Currie and Newy are gone (90% or so of their offensive production) and assume they’ll take a huge step back. The fact is that AC had a 2nd string backfield last year that was the next best backfield in the ACAC after their own 1’s. Those guys are back and Black took a huge step forward as a leader and runner as QB last year. He’ll need to take further strides this year if they want to repeat last year’s success. AC’s front 7 will be about as solid as it gets in 1A with returning LBs Keegan Bluhm (over 200 tackles as he enters his junior season) and Ryan Tester. Zac Wurm (6’4” 280lb) returns up front along with some other solid players. The secondary will be the biggest question mark, but the pressure from the front 7 will help alleviate pressure on the DBs. 
 

SA is the front runner for 2nd place and I’m sure some from Berne will argue they’ll contend for the top spot, but I don’t see it. Owen Wanner will be the best passing QB in the conference for the next 2 years, but will he have time to throw against quality opponents? 
 

I think Heritage will be the next best team based on their numbers from last year and it seemed like their kids were buying into Coach Kolkmann’s program. 
 

The rest is a bit of a crapshoot. Southern Wells will struggle to score against any varsity defense. I’d say the rest of the standings will be Jay County, Woodlan, Bluffton and then Southern Wells.   
 

 

How is Woodlan progressing under Coach Smith?  Do you see them challenging the Adams schools ?

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42 minutes ago, DT said:

How is Woodlan progressing under Coach Smith?  Do you see them challenging the Adams schools ?

I can only comment on what I saw last year on the field at the varsity and JV levels and nothing would’ve indicated last year that they would be able to challenge the Adams County schools this year. 
 

A lot can happen in the off-season as far as player development and getting more kids to come out. I really hope the program, along with others in the ACAC, improves to increase the level of competition on Friday nights. 

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3 hours ago, NE8Fan said:

Adams County Athletic Conference 

I see what you did there. 😉

As a Heritage alum I would love to see them put together a winning season and maybe go a round or two in post.  They seemed to be pretty down with the previous coach and it can take a few years to turn some programs around. 4-6 ain't too bad for a rebuild team, but 6-4 (trying to be realistic) would be nice.

No clue what's up with Southern Wells.  I'll have to get some intel from my wife's side of the fam, if I can.  She graduated from there. Couple years ago they didn't even field a team, right?  I remember when I was playing (82-85) if you had SW on your schedule you were going to get at least one win.  They had a few good teams over the years, but IMO just not the football buy-in from the community.  IIRC, they were more of a basketball school.

Agree with @FlyingHigh on the pecking order at this early date.

Edited by Bonecrusher
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3 hours ago, Bonecrusher said:

I see what you did there. 😉

As a Heritage alum I would love to see them put together a winning season and maybe go a round or two in post.  They seemed to be pretty down with the previous coach and it can take a few years to turn some programs around. 4-6 ain't too bad for a rebuild team, but 6-4 (trying to be realistic) would be nice.

No clue what's up with Southern Wells.  I'll have to get some intel from my wife's side of the fam, if I can.  She graduated from there. Couple years ago they didn't even field a team, right?  I remember when I was playing (82-85) if you had SW on your schedule you were going to get at least one win.  They had a few good teams over the years, but IMO just not the football buy-in from the community.  IIRC, they were more of a basketball school.

Agree with @FlyingHigh on the pecking order at this early date.

Interesting perspective of SW, as when I played and growing up before that, they were one of the best teams in the conference. Those games were always toss ups between AC. Heritage was usually a loss on the schedule as well with some hard fought battles. I remember those 05 & 06 games getting beat but then winning in 07 & 08. 

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On 7/6/2022 at 3:42 PM, Basementbias said:

Interesting perspective of SW, as when I played and growing up before that, they were one of the best teams in the conference. Those games were always toss ups between AC. Heritage was usually a loss on the schedule as well with some hard fought battles. I remember those 05 & 06 games getting beat but then winning in 07 & 08. 

My frame of reference is mostly the mid-late 80's vs. the early 2000's for you.  That could be the reason for our differing takes on SW.  I graduated in 86 and IIRC they were a pretty easy win for us but that was almost 40 years ago.  The wife graduated SW in 88, and I remember her telling me (I forget which year) they went several games into the season before they scored a TD.  They had some good years after that, no argument there, but "overall" never seemed to me like a community that really caught that football "bug".  Similar to Heritage, who I would say was/is not a football school either.  Haven't followed it as close since moving out of state, so could be I was out of the loop at that point.  We were gone in the 2000's and looks to be the time frame you're working with, so yeah they could have had some good years then that I wasn't aware of.

I remember AC was always a tough opponent back then.  My freshman year, AC's O-line was significantly smaller than our D-line & backers.  We thought "we got this no problem".  Those little guys dove at our front 8 all game, cut their legs out from underneath.  Man it was ugly!  I think we lost by a few scores. Those AC running backs tor us up.  We had not practiced against that before.

Regardless of how we see it, hope some of these other ACAC teams can find something and make that conference legit again.

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  • 1 month later...
12 hours ago, FlyingHigh said:

What are the conference matchups for scrimmages? AC hosts Central Noble. 

Not sure about scrimmages, but I am seriously considering leaving the confines of Ft Wayne to see the AC/Eastside game.....should be a banger!

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18 minutes ago, NE8_Fan said:

Not sure about scrimmages, but I am seriously considering leaving the confines of Ft Wayne to see the AC/Eastside game.....should be a banger!

That game has low-key become one of, if not the best non-conference rivalries in NE IN. It goes a long way for both teams to determine how the rest of the season will go. This year should be another great game! Both teams lost significant players from 2021, but both also return a solid core of players that contributed heavily to last year's success.

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